And then right in your face in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, a national coffee chain sees the critical mass of potential customers has been reached and puts the certification on the ‘change of neighborhood’ notice to the area with their presence.

It will be interesting to see the effects of a national brand on the ecosystem of the community. Personally, I believe the local people will stay local and the many tourists and visitors to the area will be drawn first by a familiar name and then with the second thought, ‘I drink that other stuff on the highway or in midtown, but I can only have the Choices or Urban Vintage experience here.’ Plus, it makes them Brooklyn Cool to be in the truly local coffee and sandwich spots. And that’s why they’re on the corner of Lafayette and Grand in the great Republic of Brooklyn in the first place.

Before…

Before the #METOO Movement and the era of women speaking out. Even before Anita Hill, there were those who spoke out an acted out against predatory men, who had far, far fewer restraints than they have even now. Lena Baker was prey for one such man and she fought back and, and in the telling of her story we can imagine how often she and all the others were always the prey, cornered and helpless facing the predator. And now with Brett Kavanaugh, facing multiple allegations of lying about sexual misconduct, going to the Supreme Court, joining Clarence Thomas, also accused of sexual harassment, women are feeling deep vibrations of having their bodies cornered again.

There is much made of the widening gender gap between regarding Donald Trump and attribute too much of it I think to the sexual harassment issue. In his election, Donald Trump received 52% of the white women’s vote but lost 90% of the black woman’s vote, And while it is the norm for groups that have been left out to support their own, white women were unique in rejecting their own, Secretary Hillary Clinton. It would seem there was an instinctive reaction of ‘Better the misogynist creep who boasts of grabbing women by their genitals and was cheating on his mistress while his wife was home having just given birth, better him than that hyper-qualified Clinton woman. Absent that reflex, the majority of white women will default against Trump and all that he represents. When the president says that the #Metoo Movement is a scary time for boys and actually makes fun of and belittles Kavanaugh’s accusers, calling it all a hoax, women will remember, and they will vote against his supporters and for other white women in droves, it’s only Hillary who made them go crazy. Trump opponents are going to run the table on the women’s vote.

So here we are now, on the brink of the yahoos inheriting control of the country. When the course of the nation is set by a couple of determined old white men, urged on by the odious President Trump and empowered by congresspeople who are cowered and safe in their gerrymandered districts designed by Republican think tanks. And now those districts combined with voter suppression are what the supremacists are counting on to prevail so they can continue the remaking of the federal judiciary for generations. That is their goal and they are in ruthless pursuit and we must be ruthless in opposition. Call home. Make sure everybody votes.